Rambling, rumbling, rumination

Garrison Under Siege

I mentioned World of Warcraft in passing a little while ago. I jumped back in a little while ago after picking up the Warlords of Draenor for $7.50 around Christmas time in a sale. I figured I’d try it out a bit and see what the fuss was about.

I paid $15 for a month, then a good friend sent me in-game gold that allowed me to purchase four more months of time via the WoW Token system. I built up a level 100 character (a new Death Knight Worgen because I wanted to get the procession boost from the insta-90 boost that came with Warlords), built a Garrison, played around a bit… then got stuck in the endless grind that is “endgame”.

Dungeons and more dungeons, reputation grinds with everyone and their ponies. I gave it more of a shot than I usually would because I thought I’d take a shot at “earning” the ability to fly in Draenor. I did pick up a few new flying mounts, poking around in old raids, after all.

…yeah, it’s a dumb, very dumb, exceptionally long grind. Gating flight behind completing the main story questlines is annoying, but acceptable to a degree. Gating it behind a ton of grind, easily months’ worth of full-time work, that’s not cool.

Anyway, I built up a Garrison that allowed me to earn enough gold to extend my playtime another few months. I picked up Harrison Jones as a follower and was poking around in the world, again and again, using the magnificent Aviana’s Feather to pretend I could fly.

And then, somehow, the game broke. I literally can’t get into the game to play, always getting stuck at this screen.

It’s been like that for about 6 weeks. Thankfully, I’m still on “Token Time”, which somehow lessens the sting a little, but man… I detest the subscription model. This is time that the game isn’t working, but I’m still “paying” for it.

I might try a full reinstall, but with my internet connection, that means another week or so.

This isn’t a Big Deal. It’s just annoying. And a big reason why I’m playing nonsubscription games and tabletop games instead of zooming around Draenor on a flying dragon.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’d pay decent money for a standalone, offline single player version of WoW. It might actually work, and I’d get to have fun with it. In the meantime, No Man’s Sky might just take over the Explorer’s itch. Once I get a few other things done, anyway.